- South Korea: Court reduces prison sentence for ex-prime minister in martial law case
Source: ABC News
“An South Korean appeals court has reduced the prison sentence of a former prime minister convicted of rebellion for his role in then President Yoon Suk Yeol’s ill-fated imposition of martial law in December 2024. Ex-Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, a Yoon appointee, was sentenced to 23 years by a Seoul court in January. Yoon was sentenced to life in prison for rebellion the next month. On Thursday, the Seoul High Court upheld most of Han’s convictions, but reduced his sentence to 15 years. It upheld charges including that Han tried to create the appearance of legitimacy for Yoon’s illegal decree by getting it endorsed at a Cabinet meeting and discussing plans to cut off of water and electricity to critical media agencies. The court also affirmed convictions for falsifying the martial law proclamation, for destroying it and for lying under oath.” (05/07/26)
- TX: Father shoots, kills man attempting to carjack sedan with family inside
Source: KOMO News
“A Texas father shot and killed a man who allegedly attempted to carjack his sedan with his family still inside. On Sunday afternoon, the father and his relatives were sitting in a parking lot in Garland, Texas, near a gas station off Highway 66, when a man approached the driver’s side door and attempted to get in, according to surveillance video obtained by Fox 4. The unidentified father got out of the sedan and attempted to keep the man from entering it, while the rest of his family fled the vehicle. The father and the man struggled as the alleged carjacker managed to get inside the driver’s seat. Eventually, the father went around to the passenger’s side front door, where he allegedly fired more than ten rounds at the alleged carjacker.” (05/06/26)
- France: Sarkozy escapes second ankle tag sentence
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy will not serve time with an electronic ankle tag as punishment for illegal funding of his 2012 re-election bid, an informed source said Wednesday. Sarkozy, 71, has faced a raft of accusations since leaving office after a single term from 2007 to 2012. He has denied all allegations in all cases. Last year, he became modern France’s first-ever president to go to jail, serving 20 days in a case related to alleged Libyan funding in his 2007 election campaign. His appeal trial in the case is ongoing. … a court on Tuesday decided Sarkozy would not have to wear the tracker due to his advanced age, the source with knowledge of the case told AFP, requesting anonymity.” (05/07/26)
- Is Economics Finally Becoming Trustworthy?
Source: EconLog
by James B Bailey“A core premise of science is that research should be replicable. If one scientist creates an experiment to measure a physical constant like the speed of light, and they document their experiment well enough, other scientists should be able to perform the same experiment and find the same result. If one lab’s results can’t be replicated anywhere else, then like cold fusion, they probably aren’t real. Outside of hard sciences like physics we don’t expect to get the same precision. Perhaps one trial finds a drug reduces heart attacks by 17%, while another finds 14%. But for research to usefully inform our actions, it needs to be at least somewhat replicable.” (05/07/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/economics-finally-trustworthy
- Israel’s “permanent security” quest is a policy with sinister implications
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Martin Di Caro“The goal of eliminating any potential or future threats, real or imaginary, will all but inevitably dehumanize and create new enemies.” (05/07/26)
- The New Property-Tax Revolts
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“Decades after a famous revolt by California homeowners led to the relief provided by Proposition 13, taxpayers acting to resist sky-high property taxes are making waves throughout the country.” (05/07/6)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/05/07/the-new-property-tax-revolts/
- Where California Went Wrong
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson“When I was a child, California was really the Promised Land, something cemented in my mind when we came here on vacation in 1961. We saw mountains, Lake Tahoe, the bridges of San Francisco, the spectacular California Pacific coast, and, of course, we went to Disneyland. As a young adult, I ran track for the University of Tennessee and one of the annual highlights of the season was our dual meet with UCLA at Drake Stadium on the university’s campus. (I ran very well against UCLA’s runners, thank you). There really was no place that compared with California, a vast land of so many spectacular things. Unfortunately, there is still a vastness of things here, but many of them are spectacularly negative.” (05/07/26)
- One Cheer for Trump’s Germany Troop Withdrawal
Source: The American Conservative
by Doug Bandow“Like a mad king of old, President Donald Trump spends hours wandering his palace, developing plans to better display his wealth and glory to an increasingly skeptical and antagonistic world. Occasionally he remembers his royal responsibilities and implements the right policy, though even then often for the wrong reason. Such as reducing the number of U.S. troops in Germany. At least it’s a start, though resulting from a fit of pique, since Berlin, like virtually every other government on earth, criticized his lawless, reckless attack on Iran, which is disrupting the global economy. He is threatening to do the same to Italy and Spain, whose political leaders also have denounced Trump’s bungled aggression, openly conducted on behalf of the Israeli government rather than the American people.” (05/07/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/one-cheer-for-trumps-germany-troop-withdrawal/
- Trump’s blockade is an act of war, not the end of war
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jon Duffy“President Trump recently described the U.S. naval blockade of Iran as ‘a very friendly blockade.’ There is no such thing. A blockade is an act of war, using armed forces to restrict another nation’s movement, commerce and access to the sea. It does not become peaceful because no one challenges it on a particular day. Trump’s administration says the ceasefire with Iran means he no longer has to seek congressional authorization to continue the war beyond 60 days, even though federal law requires it. A ceasefire may pause the shooting. It does not make an ongoing act of war disappear. The president can argue that the blockade is necessary. He cannot honestly argue that the war is effectively over while keeping the blockade in place. More dangerous than Trump’s word choice is Congress’[s] silence.” (05/07/26)
- Cruising Toward Enslavement
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Steven Goldsmith“Much ink has been spilled, much podcast time expended on the machinations of the elite globalist class who war against our autonomy, who strive to enslave us through control of our health and financial assets and to depopulate us. All true. But we commoners cannot control what they try to do, cannot temper their sociopathy. What we can do is look at ourselves in the mirror and recognize how we have been disempowering ourselves, allowing our autonomy to be up for grabs; how we have been surrendering that which differentiates us from other animals — free will.” (05/07/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/cruising-toward-enslavement/
- There Is No Evidence the Trump Assassination Attempts Were Staged. People Still Believe They Were
Source: Wired
by David Gilbert“WIRED has looked at the main claims that conspiracy theorists point to when claiming both the Butler and Correspondents’ Dinner shootings were staged, and why none of the claims stand up to scrutiny.” (05/07/26)
- South Sudan, A Case Study in State Failure
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen“In 2011, the world welcomed its newest country. Fifteen years later, South Sudan is less a symbol of self-determination than a case study in state failure. Its politics remain dominated by factional strongmen, its economy is almost entirely dependent on oil, and the threat of renewed large-scale violence never quite recedes. For most Americans, it barely registers — just another distant tragedy filed away under ‘Africa.’ But South Sudan did not simply emerge from the mists of post-colonial history. It was, in no small part, a project of Washington.” (05/07/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/south-sudan-a-case-study-in-state-failure
- Obliteration Ecocide from Gaza to Lebanon and Beyond
Source: Antiwar.com
by Dan Steinbock“Modern warfare in Gaza is no longer just counterinsurgency but systems-level destruction of the environmental and infrastructural substrate of life – water, soil, agriculture, energy, and urban continuity.” (05/07/26)
- A Symphony of Scandal
Source: Law & Liberty
by George Hawley“Honest politicians are all alike; every crook is crooked in his own fashion.” (05/07/26)
- Church Report to FISA: Why Won’t Congress Stop the Surveillance State?
Source: The Daily Economy
by Jeffery L Degner“The Church Committee exposed sweeping abuses by America’s intelligence agencies 50 years ago. Section 702’s recent reauthorization suggests lawmakers are increasingly comfortable with expansive spying on American citizens.” (05/07/26)
- Washington Is Still Chasing the Perfect War
Source: Foreign Policy
by Adam Weinstein“The United States’[s] leaders are still chasing the fantasy of a perfect war—one in which Washington’s technological and logistical might leads to a clear, swift victory. It’s a misconception rooted in what U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal called the ‘three great seductions’ of modern warfare: covert action, surgical special operations raids, and airpower. Together, they sustain the illusion that war can be precise and controlled.” (05/06/26)
- Reflecting on Ted Turner’s Crowded Life
Source: Property and Environment Research Center
by Brian Yablonski“Theodore Roosevelt coined the term ‘crowded hour’ about his moments of battle in the Spanish-American War. When I think of Ted Turner’s life, the bigger term ‘crowded life’ comes to mind. His impact on how we communicate and take our news today all starts with his founding of CNN. And who hasn’t pulled up an old film on Turner Classic Movies as late-night comfort food? Speaking of comfort food, he almost single handedly reintroduced the bison at scale to the West and bison meat to the world through his Ted’s Montana Grill restaurants. But these episodes in a crowded life are not Ted’s most consequential impact. His true lasting impact will have been on the larger natural world.” (05/06/26)
https://www.perc.org/2026/05/06/reflecting-on-ted-turners-crowded-life/
- Liberty not subject to majority rule
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal“In exercising their liberty, some people will do things that offend you. Many people want you to believe if they’ve been offended, they’ve been violated somehow. They haven’t. Being offended isn’t the same as having your life, liberty, or property violated, even though weak people who want to control others often use this ploy. Don’t play along.” (05/06/26)
- The uniparty media’s pro-war twins
Source: UnHerd
by Nikos Mohammadi“America boasts the world’s largest media market, and even in this age of shrinking attention spans, strained ad budgets, and declining circulation, it offers something for everyone. But does this diversity extend to the nation’s prestige outlets? On the surface, the answer would seem to be yes. The New York Times plays to the post-woke-but-still-kinda-woke establishment Left, while The Washington Post editorial page, under Jeff Bezos’s increasingly heavy-handed leadership, is going for Trump-friendly free-market conservatism. The contrast is exemplified by two of the papers’ most prominent writers: the Times’[s] Russian-born columnist Masha Gessen … couldn’t be more different from the Post’s Marc Thiessen, who’s gaining a lot of attention these days as President Trump’s favorite print columnist. … The two should be at odds, and in some ways, they are. But when it comes to foreign policy, they sing almost exactly the same hawkish, pro-empire song, albeit in slightly different keys.” (05/06/26)
- The Personal Panopticon
Source: Independent Institute
by Sam Jenson“Meta Inc., previously known as Facebook Inc., intends to implement facial recognition technology in its smart glasses, which are produced in collaboration with Ray-Ban and currently sold without this capability. The proposed feature would facilitate real-time translation and allow users to ask on-demand questions. However, the integration of facial recognition technology introduces significant privacy and legal concerns for individuals in public spaces.” (05/06/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/05/06/personal-panopticon-smart-glasses/
- Try Liberty, episode 1
Source: Try Liberty
“Liberland: The freest nation on Earth?” (05/07/26)
- The Fifth Column, episode 556
Source: The Fifth Column
“In Which the 1% Protests the 1%, Mamdani Builds a Grocery Store, California Searches for a Governor, and Iran Has Questions.” (05/07/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/masquerade-of-morons-episode-556
- Max Rangeley Speech on Robotics, AI, and the Future of War
Source: Cobden Centre
“[E]ven with the developments in Ukraine and elsewhere, most people in the military underestimate the importance of robotics and AI. In the very near future, any military that does not have these technologies fully integrated will resemble those that attempted cavalry charges against machine guns in the early twentieth century.” (05/07/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/05/speech-in-tirana-on-robotics-ai-and-the-future-of-war/
- Kibbe on Liberty, episode 384
Source: Free the People
“It’s Time to Give Privacy Rights an Update | Guest: Naomi Brockwell.” (05/06/26)
- The Kyle Anzalone Show, 05/06/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Larry Johnson: Midterm, Markets, and Missiles.” (05/06/26)
- The Tom Woods Show, episode 2758
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“The Secret History of Gold.” (05/06/26)
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/06/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“US Attacks and Disables Iranian Oil Tanker, Trump Threatens Iran With Higher Level Bombing, and More.” (05/06/26)